Wetland

The major wetland types are River/Stream (65162 ha), Lagoons (38442 ha), Reservoirs (26167 ha) and waterlogged (20305 ha).Compared to coastal land , the high land and middle land hold very few wetlands. The state consist of 160.6 thousand hectare (ha) of wetlands i.e. 4.13 per cent of the state. There are a total of 4,354 wetlands of which 2,592 are mainly wetlands with area less than2.25 ha each. Rest of the 1.762 wetlands is divided into two types- inland and coastal. Kerala has 169 natural coastal wetlads with a total area of 40.9 thousand ha. There are 1,593 inland wetlands with total area 117.1 thousand ha.

Kerala has got 41 west flowing and 3 east flowing rivers originating from the Western Ghats. The total annual yield of all these rivers together is 78.041 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) of which 70,323 MCM is in Kerala. The total utilizable yield is estimated to be 42000 Mm3, which is only 60% of the annual yield. River length varies from 16km for the Manjeswaram River to 244 km for the periyar. Only 11 rivers have more than 100 km each. The periyar with a length of 244 km is the longest river in the state and it drains a catchment area of 5398 sq.km ,of which 5284 sq.km are in Kerala. The combined length of the trunk stream of all major rivers is fed by 12 sq.km of catchment area.[More]

Backwater / Estuaries of Kerala

Estuaries are semi closed water bodies connected to the sea, within which seawater is measurably diluted by fresh water. Interaction of two chemically and physically different water masses gives rise to complex sedimentological process ,morphological response, biological process and chemical characteristics. The backwaters of Kerala are a unique ecosystem in Kerala wherein lagoons, lakes, canals, estuaries and deltas of several rivers meet the Arabian Sea. The backwaters are made up of over 900km of interconnected waterways, rivers, lakes and inlets.[More]

Lakes of Kerala

Manmade lakes and reservoirs created by constructing dams across various rivers in the Western Ghats contribute to a sizeable proportion of artificial wetlands of the state.[More]

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